Stale Economic News, Media and the Stock Market

48 Pages Posted: 26 Aug 2012 Last revised: 17 Jun 2018

See all articles by Gene Birz

Gene Birz

Southern Connecticut State University - Department of Economics and Finance

Date Written: January 1, 2017

Abstract

I employ a classification of headlines from newspapers and wire services to examine whether stale macroeconomic news affects stock prices. Unlike with individual stocks, the cost of obtaining information about major economic releases is relatively low. Thus, stock prices should adjust to economic news announcements prior to their coverage in newspapers. I find statistically and economically significant relationship between stale news stories on unemployment and next week’s S&P 500 returns. This effect is then completely reversed during the following week. These findings show that investors are affected by salient information and support the hypothesis that investors overreact to stale macroeconomic news reported in newspapers.

Keywords: Media, stale information, macroeconomic announcements, attention, efficient markets

JEL Classification: G12, G14, E44

Suggested Citation

Birz, Gene, Stale Economic News, Media and the Stock Market (January 1, 2017). Journal of Economic Psychology, Vol. 61, 2017, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2136291 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2136291

Gene Birz (Contact Author)

Southern Connecticut State University - Department of Economics and Finance ( email )

New Haven, CT 06515
United States

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